Latest market data

Stock search

“Trust your gut” is old advice, but it turns out, it’s
scientifically sound advice as well.

If it’s your brain that’s making the decisions, then what’s your
gut got to do with it? There are a few factors to consider behind
trusting your gut that have their roots in solid research,
neuroscience and psychology.

How come some things you can remember effortlessly while others
you have to work really hard to access? The reason is that your
brain has two types of memory: explicit and implicit, the latter of
which is believed to be the driving force behind gut
feelings.

Explicit memory is the knowledge you have to cram into your head
with determined, focused effort. If you’ve ever studied to ace a
test -- that’s your explicit memory at work. Implicit memory,
however, is all the stuff that gets jammed into your head through
no conscious or intentional effort on your part. Think of
implicit memory as the reason you can randomly recall film quotes
and song lyrics after seeing a movie or hearing a song. You
didn't try to remember it, it just got absorbed by your brain.

When implicit and explicit memory functions work together, you
can develop skills that evolve into second nature. For
example, you must explicitly learn to ride a bike, but once you
do -- that skill follows you for life. Your implicit memory
recalls how to balance, pedal and steer through your explicit
memory of the past. You don’t have to re-learn how to ride every
time you hop on a cycle.

With implicit memory, you just know that touching a hot stove is
a bad idea or falling in love is fun, but potentially harmful to
your heart. These implicit memories can help dictate a gut
instinct that can guide you to better decision-making based on
past triggers you may not even remember with your conscious mind.

This harkens back to our caveman days before we had developed
fully-functioning frontal lobes that allowed us to synthesize
potential future outcomes based on circumstances. In the days of
our cave-dwelling ancestors, the thing that dictated our ability
to survive were the gut reactions prompted by our simple implicit
memory. These unconscious queues helped trigger memories of
danger that helped preserve ancient life spans.

While today’s gut-trusting techniques are usually much less
life-or-death oriented, they still have important ramifications
for learning from your life’s experiences. Often times those gut
feelings are telling you something you should pay attention to,
or at least acknowledge and explore before making a decision.